RME Babyface Pro FS Portable Interface Review

[alexcoitus]

i told you it needs 20 -30 seconds and the changing is progressive, the sound thins for 30 seconds when the cable is off and warms up for 30 seconds when you put the cable, listen with your headphones, thank you

 

[memopro]

I did everything you said and no difference.
Did you watch the second clip where I wait 30 seconds?
Tried on headphones, no difference.
You need to understand it, the problem is with your device/devices.

 

[alexcoitus]

I did everything you said and no difference.
Did you watch the second clip where I wait 30 seconds?
Tried on headphones, no difference.
You need to understand it, the problem is with your device/devices.

i hear very fine at 48-49 second that when you put the adaptor the sound widens immediatly, i listened it with my headphones, its there. please also other people can comment on this so im not the one who is telling you. i m music producer 20 years, i have serious ears

 

[alexcoitus]

i hear very fine at 48-49 second that when you put the adaptor the sound widens immediatly, i listened it with my headphones, its there. please also other people can comment on this so im not the one who is telling you. i m music producer 20 years, i have serious ears

propably you dont know what is difference in sound, you only know volume up volume down bass and tremble, sorry boy , you have to start listening to sound not only music

 

[Blumlein 88]

propably you dont know what is difference in sound, you only know volume up volume down bass and tremble, sorry boy , you have to start listening to sound not only music

This has gone beyond being ridiculous. Do you think there is an obvious change in sound that won't show up in measurements? You've become insulting to people humoring your ideas and giving them a try. The most obvious answer is what you are hearing is not from a change in the device. You have in mind the power of the external adapter raising the sound quality and bass slam of the device. You mentioned turning it into a 30 watt DAC which is a phrase that doesn't even make any sense. memopro has tried what you suggested even recording it for us. The idea you have in mind as to what the external power adapter might be doing simply does not fit with how a device like this works.

Why don't you do recordings with and without the external supply and make the files available to us. Pretty easy using Deltawave to find out what any differences are in quite some detail. You even get to listen to those differences. I'm familiar with the software if you are not and can do the comparison analysis if you'll provide the recorded files.

 

[alexcoitus]

please someone with sensitive headphones listen to the video, cause you people dont know where you listening from, 48-49 second when he plugs in the adaptor stereo image widens dramatically

 

[BDWoody]

propably you dont know what is difference in sound, you only know volume up volume down bass and tremble, sorry boy , you have to start listening to sound not only music

So you are going to just start insulting the members who are trying to interact with you in good faith to help you.

Not a good plan.

 

[BDWoody]

please someone with sensitive headphones listen to the video, cause you people dont know where you listening from, 48-49 second when he plugs in the adaptor stereo image widens dramatically

Either provide files as suggested by @Blumlein 88 , or you can just stop now.

 

[memopro]

i hear very fine at 48-49 second that when you put the adaptor the sound widens immediatly, i listened it with my headphones, its there. please also other people can comment on this so im not the one who is telling you. i m music producer 20 years, i have serious ears

Bro, this is from the song.
It's just layered, the reverb on the vocals with the noise effect, hihats and others.
This song is mine.

1:12 is the 48th second of the clip.

If you have a difference when you turn on the adapter, then maybe the USB you are using does not supply enough power to the BF and that is why it makes a difference.
In general, the BF adapter is for stand-alone use or with mobile devices, and exceptionally when the USB ports cannot power the BF, except for the listed cases, an adapter is not needed on the BF.

 

[alexcoitus]

Bro, this is from the song.
It's just layered, the reverb on the vocals with the swooshing noise effect, hihats and others.
This song is mine.

1:12 is the 48th second of the clip.

If you have a difference when you turn on the adapter, then maybe the USB you are using does not supply enough power to the BF and that is why it makes a difference.
In general, the BF adapter is for stand-alone use or with mobile devices, and exceptionally when the USB ports cannot power the BF, except for the listed cases, an adapter is not needed on the BF.

im sorry but your ears arent that sensitive, i thought you guys had some knowledge, but ok ,keep on testing

 

[BDWoody]

im sorry but your ears arent that sensitive, i thought you guys had some knowledge, but ok ,keep on testing

Yeah, that must be it.

You can move along now.

 

[Blumlein 88]

im sorry but your ears arent that sensitive, i thought you guys had some knowledge, but ok ,keep on testing

Yes, it is just his own song. What would he know about it?

You also seem to have it backwards. I'm sorry, your ears are too sensitive to extraneous factors. They hear what isn't there. They hear what they see.

 

[MC_RME]

For the technically interested:. The BF internally runs from a converter that turns 5 Volts USB bus power into all needed voltages (+-10V, +- 6V, +1.2V etc.). The external 12 V input feeds a buck regulator that turns 12 V into 5 V, then goes to the same path as bus power (of course via circuits that exclude one or the other). So external power just replaces USB bus power. There is zero benefit else, from the higher voltage or so.

Therefore differences with external power can only be caused by a failing USB bus power. And that would be quite unusual due to the low power needed here.

 

[Purité Audio]

Another illusion shattered, three times the bass output…
Keith

 

[memopro]

For the technically interested:. The BF internally runs from a converter that turns 5 Volts USB bus power into all needed voltages (+-10V, +- 6V, +1.2V etc.). The external 12 V input feeds a buck regulator that turns 12 V into 5 V, then goes to the same path as bus power (of course via circuits that exclude one or the other). So external power just replaces USB bus power. There is zero benefit else, from the higher voltage or so.

Therefore differences with external power can only be caused by a failing USB bus power. And that would be quite unusual due to the low power needed here.

Thanks for the clarification Matthias!

 

[Veri]

For the technically interested:. The BF internally runs from a converter that turns 5 Volts USB bus power into all needed voltages (+-10V, +- 6V, +1.2V etc.). The external 12 V input feeds a buck regulator that turns 12 V into 5 V, then goes to the same path as bus power (of course via circuits that exclude one or the other). So external power just replaces USB bus power. There is zero benefit else, from the higher voltage or so.

Therefore differences with external power can only be caused by a failing USB bus power. And that would be quite unusual due to the low power needed here.

What do YOU know, anyway???

(/s)

 

[designfx]

@MC_RME - If you've got a moment, do you mind giving us an update if there is a new revision of the Babyface Pro FS for 2025? I thought I read there was another change to either the DAC or ADC (can't recall where I might have seen that, will try to find the source), which would theoretically make the 2025 version a third revision of the Babyface Pro FS, if true. Please correct me if wrong.

I do understand why there was a second version of the Babyface Pro FS (which was due to the AKM supply issue, factory fire, etc), but I'd be curious what would be the reason for this alleged third version of the Babyface Pro FS? And are the real-world specs otherwise basically the same?

Thanks for any insight/thoughts you have on this!

Long live the Babyface Pro FS!

 

[lkanies]

Hello - I have a question about usage of the Babyface Pro FS with microphones. I am just about to return the one I recently bought, because I don’t think it works for me, but I figured I’d double check I’m not doing something wrong.

With the BFP connected to my mac in host-mode or whatever it’s called, where TotalMix works, is TotalMix the only way to turn on and off phantom power?

(Note that I’ve tested all of this and am describing what I think is expected behavior, and what I observed; I am trying to figure out if I did something wrong or misunderstood something.)

I have read that I should not send phantom power to mics when not in use, to maintain longevity, so I like to leave it off. I also do this because then my mics aren’t always live, which produces less visible distraction and creeps me out a little less. And I regularly switch between two different mics, so I need to swap phantom power *and* monitoring from to the other (I often use one mic without monitoring, but sometimes with, so the switching is important).

It looks like, from the manual, that I have to switch into compliance mode, then the physical buttons can be used to enable/disable phantom power. But then I can never use TotalMix, which is a bummer. I don’t want to have to use it every time I use a mic (too fidgety for my use cases), but it’d be nice to have it. And, if I remember correctly, the mics always come through as a single channel in compliance mode, vs in a stereo mix.

(FWIW my use cases are basically using microphones (condenser and shotgun) for video calls and such. Yes this device is total overkill but fits for multiple other reasons, including I need balanced outs and I’ve tried all of the cheaper ones; my Motu m2 is flaking out, and I’d prefer to get something that will last longer.)

Thanks!

 

[lkanies]

Hmm. Writing my post caused me to revisit my received wisdom that I should leave phantom power off for mics not in use, and it looks like most people actually don’t agree with that advice.

So now I’ve revisited.

If I leave phantom power on, then I can *nearly* do everything I want without having to open TotalMix. It’s much easier to just turn phantom power on and off than to turn the gain up and back down, but it’s at least manageable.

The only thing I haven’t yet figured out how to do is turn monitoring on and off for a given mic from the BFP itself (it’s straightforward in TotalMix). I have a shotgun mic that I rarely use with monitoring, but I do sometimes. It’s not the worst to have to open TotalMix for that, and I have come nowhere near reading the whole manual.

I’d sure love to just be able to create a bunch of named mixes in TotalMix, and then use the Mix button to switch between them. (Who knows, maybe I can!?) But I’ll use this a bit more and see how I feel about keeping it. The software makes it very clear that I am not a professional sound engineer. I managed to screw it up so badly I spent five minutes just clicking undo until it was back to defaults (bravo for that working!). And for some reason the selected output is “phones” on the device, but it is very clearly outputting to the XLR ports. That’s going to drive me crazy until I figure it out. (And hitting the Out button on the device does nothing.)

Sorry to waste your time, but maybe someone else will find this monologue useful at some point. And of course, please do let me know if you know of anything it seems I should with this device.

Thanks,
Luke

Edit: I forgot to add, even with gain set at 0, I still pickup audio through my shotgun mic if it has phantom power. It’s very quiet, and won’t show up on most recordings. But… it’s still there, which is not great. One more downside of not being able to turn off the mics.

 

[digitallysane]

It’s much easier to just turn phantom power on and off than to turn the gain up and back down

That would be a good feature to have available in all operating modes of the BFP, not only stand-alone and CC.